The United States and Japan will step up their defence cooperation to deal with the threat from nuclear-armed North Korea as tensions in East Asia remain high, officials from the two allies said on Thursday.

Trump says its time to 'move on' from Russian hacking scandal

Donald Trump says it's time for America to "move on" from the Russian hacking scandal as Barack Obama moves to punish the old foe with a brace of sanctions.

The outgoing president booted 35 Russian officials out of the country overnight, and closed down two compounds on US soil following "significant malicious cyber-enabled activities" that the administration claims were "intended to influence the election".

But Trump, who recently said he was smart enough not to need daily intelligence briefings, has continued to be dismissive of those claims, saying it's time for the US to put the matter to rest.

"It's time for our country to move on to bigger and better things," he said in a statement.

"Nevertheless, in the interest of our country and its great people, I will meet with leaders of the intelligence community next week in order to be updated on the facts of this situation."

Trump's scepticism over Russia's alleged attempts to "erode faith in US democratic institutions", as the government puts it, is consistent with his conciliatory approach to Russo-US relations, and comes in a week where domestic battlelines are being drawn via international allegiances.

The president-elect could reverse the sanctions on Russia once he's inaugurated, although one of Obama's senior officials told CNN that doing so "wouldn't make a lot of sense".

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Trump's attitude towards the sanctions – possibly influenced by his relatively warm long-distance relationship with Vladimir Putin – has again put him at odds with his own party, with Paul Ryan describing the punishment as "overdue".

For its part Russia, which has described the stoush as "Cold War déjà vu", has threatened to counter Obama's punitive measures, though it is yet to give any details as to what it will do.